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About Sharon
Sharon C. Glotzer is the Anthony C. Lembke Department Chair of Chemical Engineering at the University of Michigan, where she also serves as the John Werner Cahn Distinguished University Professor of Engineering and Stuart W. Churchill Collegiate Professor of Chemical Engineering. She holds additional professorships in Materials Science and Engineering, Macromolecular Science and Engineering, Physics, and Applied Physics. Glotzer received a B.S. in Physics from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1987 and a Ph.D. in Physics from Boston University in 1993. Prior to joining Michigan in 2001, she worked at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for eight years, co-founding and directing the Center for Theoretical and Computational Materials Science.
Her research centers on computational assembly science, investigating self-assembly principles in nanoscale systems to engineer designer materials from molecular, nanoparticle, and colloidal building blocks. Pioneering discoveries include patchy particles for directed assembly, entropy-driven crystal formation from simple shapes, and predictive tools like the shape space diagram. With over 300 refereed publications cited more than 40,000 times (h-index 98), key works encompass "Anisotropy of building blocks and their assembly into complex structures" (Nature Materials, 2007), "Predictive self-assembly of polyhedra into complex structures" (Science, 2012), "Self-Assembly of Patchy Particles" (Nano Letters, 2004), and recent advances such as "Colloidal quasicrystals engineered with DNA" (Nature Materials, 2023). Glotzer's impact is reflected in her election to the National Academy of Sciences (2014), National Academy of Engineering (2019), American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2011), and fellowships in AAAS, APS, AIChE, MRS, and RSC. Recent honors include the 2025 Peter Debye Award (ACS), 2025 Irving Langmuir Award (APS), 2024 David Turnbull Lectureship (MRS), 2023 Clarivate Citation Laureate, and 2022 Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship. She leads a group of 30 researchers and has given over 350 invited lectures.
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